{"id":29251,"date":"2026-03-19T13:41:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=29251"},"modified":"2026-03-19T13:41:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:41:56","slug":"caf-president-defends-judicial-independence-after-afcon-final-reversal","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/caf-president-defends-judicial-independence-after-afcon-final-reversal\/","title":{"rendered":"CAF President defends judicial independence after AFCON final reversal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe has defended the organisation\u2019s judicial processes following the decision to strip Senegal of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title and award it to Morocco.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Motsepe stressed that CAF\u2019s judicial bodies operate independently and that their decisions must be respected, noting that he does not play any role in their rulings. He was responding to the decision by the CAF Appeals Board, which awarded Morocco a 3-0 victory after ruling that Senegal had forfeited the final due to misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The ruling contrasts with an earlier decision by CAF\u2019s Disciplinary Committee, which had rejected Morocco\u2019s protest and upheld Senegal\u2019s victory in the final.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Motsepe said the differing outcomes demonstrate the independence of CAF\u2019s judicial structures, adding that the process for appointing members to these bodies is designed to ensure fairness and credibility.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He also acknowledged Senegal\u2019s decision to challenge the ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, saying CAF respects the country\u2019s right to pursue the matter through the appropriate legal channels.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22506,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-29251","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"CAF President Patrice Motsepe has defended the organisation\u2019s judicial processes following the decision to strip Senegal of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title and award it to Morocco","published_date":"2026-03-19 13:41:46","news_description":"CAF President Patrice Motsepe has defended the organisation\u2019s judicial processes following the decision to strip Senegal of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title and award it to Morocco","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29252,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29251\/revisions\/29252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=29251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}